Quote:
Originally Posted by PigLickJF
I see what you're saying, but in your first example (normal init), everyone involved has gotten 2 turns in 2 rounds, as expected. In the second example (block), PC1 and NPC 1 have both taken two actions, whereas PC2 has gotten only 1, despite 2 rounds having passed. That pattern will continue to the Nth round, assuming all rounds after the first end after the NPC's turn.
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You're only getting that result because of where you're drawing the lines regarding rounds--which is arbitrary and has little in-game relevance other than "it's time to back to the start of the cycle." What matters is how many times you act in relation to your allies and enemies. If you win initiative, you wobble back and forth between one more turn and the same number of turns as your enemy, depending on where you are in the round (whether you've just acted or they have). And if you lose initiative, you wobble back and forth between the same number of turns as your enemy and one less--which is exactly how it should be.
Fundamentally, you get just as many actions as you would've in a true Initiative system and in the same order in relation to your enemies, so long as you measure it by the actual course of combat--so saying that the player that loses initiative is short changed is, to my mind, kind of misleading.
Your suggestion would mean, among other things, that the PC would get two full turns of actions all at once before the NPC gets to act again, and that's going to swing the balance of the game wildly. Viletta's formulation only differs from your "semi block" version above in that PC winners and PC losers can act in any order after the first NPC turn.
FWIW, I've seen the GM use Initiative as a DC in this case. Take the average of the enemies' initiative (11 + average mod, say, to account for the average d20 roll being 10.5 and the fact that the PC's always win in a tie) and if you make that DC with your Initiative roll you can act immediately. If you fail, you've gotta wait until after the first set of NPC actions.
One side effect of block initiative is that fights can be swingier. Since the whole NPC crew acts as one (and the whole PC crew) there's more dramatic shifts occurring--everyone's force is concentrated at once. Just keep it in mind, as it can make combat both shorter and deadlier.